The ABC has given police footage taken by the broadcaster of climate activists as part of a Four Corners investigation, according to activist group Disrupt Burrup Hub.
The Four Corners program, which aired earlier this month, depicted Disrupt Burrup Hub activists being arrested by WA police outside Woodside Petroleum CEO Meg O’Neill’s Perth home. The group is opposed to the expansion of Woodside’s gas facilities on the Burrup Peninsula on the basis of the environmental impacts, as well as the impact on sacred First Nations sites.
Campaigner and Ballardong Noongar man Desmond Blurton said: “I consented to be filmed for a Four Corners investigation. I never consented to be filmed for a WA police investigation. It is quite possible that confidential discussions [about other social issues affecting my First Nations community] … were still captured by the ABC.”
Disrupt Burrup Hub’s media adviser Jesse Noakes, who is set to face trial for allegedly failing to give detectives access to his computer and phone, said: “I personally received undertakings from the ABC in relation to multiple sources who requested and received specific guarantees they would not be identified for their participation in events filmed by Four Corners.
“If the ABC release Four Corners footage to WA police, who would ever trust the ABC to tell their story again?”
Noakes told Guardian Australia earlier this month: “At least three people requested and received that specific undertaking in advance of Four Corners filming their participation in these events.”
Barrister Zarah Burgess, appearing for Noakes, said he would argue that Noakes has a defence of a “reasonable excuse” under section 55(2) of Western Australia’s Criminal Investigations Act, and the same defence is available to the ABC in relation to orders to produce, the mechanism by which WA police sought to obtain the footage.
The ABC’s editorial policies provide that “assurances given in relation to conditions of participation, use of content, confidentiality or anonymity must be honoured except in rare cases where justified in the public interest”, with exceptions to be escalated within the organisations.
WA police told Crikey it was “for [the ABC] to comment on”.
ABC managing director David Anderson told a Senate estimates hearing yesterday that the organisation was still seeking to restrain the release of footage to WA police, but hinted at the partial release of footage.
“We’ve always protected our sources, we always have, we always will,” Anderson said.
“We could not comply with the full order to produce because otherwise it would have captured confidential sources — that’s what we’ve been negotiating with WA police.”
The ABC and federal Communications Minister Michelle Rowland have been contacted for comment.
